Research and Planning: Music Magazine Moodboard

Research and Planning: Initial Idea for Music Magazine

My initial idea for my music magazine is based around a R&B/Pop genre for a more mainstream audience, including chart artists such as Pixie Lott, Tinie Tempah, Beyonce etc. It is based around being aimed towards the 16-21 student age bracket for both genders. I plan on containing interviews with up and coming popular artists that will be attractive to my target audience. I think I will make the house style for my magazine fairly bright and vibrant to attract the eye of the audience. 

Music Magazine Front Cover Analysis

Musicmagazineanalysis

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Montage Of Music Magazine Front Covers

This montage illustrates the diverse range of music magazines that are on the market today. There is a music magazine to cater for every type of taste and sub-genre that is out there which illustrates that there is such a wide scope for music magazines in the media in todays society.

Researching The Magazine Market Place

The magazine NME is published by the company ‘IPC Media’. IPC Media publishes over 60 iconic brand name magazines, which in total reaches two thirds of the UK female population and 42% of the UK male population. With one of their productions ‘NME’, and extremely well sought after music magazine reaching 1 million UK readers alone, it is fair to stay IPC Media has a large share of the market. They also produce ‘Look’, ‘Marie Claire’, ‘Good To Know Recipes’, ‘Now’, ‘Nuts’ and many more which illustrates that they produce a wide range of genres. They also produce another music magazine titled ‘Uncut’.

Introduction to Main Task

Now that i have completed the prelim task I am going to begin Research and Planning for the main task. The main task is to produce the front cover, contents and two page spread of a music magazine. Before i can make the magazine i need to research some existing products.

Week	Tasks to complete
1) 16 January	·      Compare magazines & research the magazine market place ·      Research similar products: 3x front cover, 2x contents pages, 2x double page spread
2) 24 January	·      Initial ideas ·      Audience research ·      Writing a treatment plan
3) 30 January	·      Layout/ Masthead ideas ·      Plan photo shoot and take photos ·      Drafting of pages ·      Audience feedback
4) 6-27 February	·      Drafting of pages ·      Audience feedback
5) 5 March	·      Evaluation
6) 16 March	·      Final deadline

Evaluation

1   1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In order to originally identify the key conventions, which I needed to use to create, a successful looking college magazine I looked at examples of other student magazines, this also gave me a clear idea of what I should include in my magazine. It became apparent to me that the majority of magazines have roughly the same sort of layout for their cover page. The masthead is usually located to the top of the page either to the left or towards the center of the page. Magazines then usually have a selection of cover lines and images relating to the contents of the magazine. As contents pages in general magazines do not have as specific conventions as cover pages do, I was able t be slightly more creative with this aspect including the two main conventions of a contents page, images and the contents list.

2.   2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 My magazine is aimed at students as it is a college magazine, therefor I wanted to make sure that it was appealing to myself and the sort of thing that I could imagine my friends reading. Therefor using my questionnaire results and my own initiative I decided to ensure that the magazine was bright and eye catching with a wide range of pictures. For the cover page of my magazine I used a mid close up of a student in front of a Christmas tree, this gave a seasonal feel to the magazine without it being too overwhelming. I also added a relatively small amount of text/cover lines to the front cover, in order to entice the audience without it being too overwhelming in order to put the target audience off reading the magazine. The text which I used for these cover lines is fairly informal which is also fairly appealing to the student audience. I used a rather bright, vibrant colour scheme for my magazine as this makes it more interesting and eye catching.

3.   3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

As my magazine is mainly aimed at college students as it includes tips and hints for exams a long with certain aspects particularly from Ludlow college. Therefore my magazine is most likely to be distributed and created by the college itself.

4.   4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

My main target audience for my magazine is college students therefor they would generally be ranging between 16-19 years of age. As the magazine is generally based on all genders, females may find it slightly more interesting as there are aspects to the magazine including fashion updates, which are generally more aimed at the female audience.

5.   5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience through the use of a vibrant colour scheme, a fairly un-clustered layout and using pictures of college students, which they may know, to entice them to want to read/buy the magazine. The vibrant colour scheme would make the magazine extremely eye catching, therefor attracting them to take a closer look. Then using contents that is likely to be extremely beneficial and interesting to the audience would hopefully entice them to buy the magazine. I have used a vibrant puff to capture the audience’s attention in order to influence them to purchase the magazine.

6.   6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Through creating this piece I have used a range of technology, which I have not used before, such as programs like Photoshop and Adobe InDesign. This has allowed me to broaden my skills of computer technology alongside discovering new techniques I can use to create a professional looking piece of work. For example I have learnt how to basically transform an image to make a persons face look blemish free using the ‘smudge’ tool. I also learnt how to convert the standard square shape of a photo into different shapes to make the magazine look more professional and interesting. I have also never used any form of blogging site including ‘Blogger’ therefor I also had to establish how to use this site and also how to make it look appealing and acceptable for my task. 

Final Front Cover and Contents

Front Cover and Contents Mock Up